"Hey, would you like a nice cold cup of lemonade on this hot day?": children's understanding of economic causation.
Three experiments were performed to examine development of understanding of functional relations in economics by children between ages 4 and 10 years. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that preschoolers understood the effects of demand, and 2nd graders also understood the effects of supply, but even 4th graders often failed to demonstrate understanding of the effects of motivation and morality. In Experiment 2, 4th but not 2nd graders proved able to explain how motivation and morality might influence sales when told that these variables had an effect. In Experiment 3, 2nd and 4th graders' evaluations of the plausibility of other children's explanations of effects of motivation and morality showed evidence of understanding, though those of kindergartners did not. The data supported the 3 hypotheses that motivated the experiments: (a) direct links between causes and effects are understood before indirect ones, (b) positive correlations between causes and effects are understood before negative ones, and (c) variables that produce effects are understood before ones that do not.
Siegler
R S
RS
Psychology Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA. rs7k@andrew.cmu.edu
Thompson
D R
DR
D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004467:Economics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009042:Motivation